Orange spends most in Polish LTE auction

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Polish regulator UKE has published the official results of the LTE auction for frequencies in the bands 800 MHz and 2600 MHz, reports Telecompaper.com on Oct 19, 2015. The subject of the auction were five blocks (A1 - A5) of 10 MHz in the more valuable band 800 MHz and 14 blocks (B1 - B14) of 10 MHz in the 2600 MHz band. UKE announced the auction on Oct 10, 2014, and the bidding was ended just over a year later, on Oct 15, 2015, with total offers of PLN 9.2 billion ($2.45 billion). The licenses will be awarded for 15 years. The winning bidders, in order of total amount spent, were Orange Poland (PLN 3.2 billion), Cyfrowy Polsat/Polkomtel (PLN 2.2 billion), T-Mobile Poland (PLN 2.1 billion) and P4 (PLN 1.7 billion).

In the 800 MHz band, Orange Poland came away the biggest winner, acquiring two blocks for PLN 1.568 and 1.483 billion, respectively. NetNet, a company associated with Polkomtel owner Cyfrowy Polsat, will pay PLN 2.053 billion for one lot, operator P4 (network Play) PLN 1.496 billion for one lot and T-Mobile Poland PLN 2.022 billion for the final lot.

This was already Poland's second attempt to sell the licenses, after an auction in early 2014 was canceled due to technical problems. While all four operators have launched 4G services already, they have largely been limited to reframing spectrum in the 1800 and 2100 MHz bands. Only Aero2, a company controlled by Cyfrowy Polsat, already holds low-band spectrum in the 800 MHz band. Its LTE network is also used by Polkomtel and Cyrfrowy Polsat.